Gov. Jeff Landry talks Lane Kiffin, Will Wade, LIV Golf and a ‘not Southernly’ Senate race

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Landry and Engster talked about the soaring cost of college sports, with coaching buyouts costing tens of millions of dollars and the arms race to pay players. With many sports programs running big deficits, “there has to be some belt tightening,” Landry said.

He used the opportunity to bash former leaders at LSU like Scott Woodward, the former athletic director. Landry has publicly blasted Woodward for hiring football coach Brian Kelly to a mammoth contract that ended up requiring a buyout of more than $50 million.

“The first belt tightening that we did was firing Scott Woodward, or having him leave,” he said. “Getting him out the kitchen certainly saved us a whole bunch of money.”

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Landry said financial strain connected to name, image and likeness deals need attention.

“We really have to fix this NIL debacle,” Landry said. Without more guardrails, college football “will literally bankrupt” other sports programs, he said.

“I think that the LSU athletic program, from a coaching standpoint, has never been in a better position,” he said.

And he was unreserved in his praise of LSU football coach Lane Kiffin.

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Landry praised U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, who is running to replace incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy.

“I said I wasn’t getting involved until the president got involved. The president decided that he wanted to back Congresswoman Letlow. I think he made a great choice,” Landry said.

Landry said Cassidy’s polling has been “dismal” due to his 2021 vote to convict President Donald Trump on impeachment charges.

He also criticized attack ads run by Cassidy and Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming, another candidate in the Senate race.

Landry noted that that the two male candidates were relentlessly attacking the female candidate.

“They’re certainly not being Southernly,” he said.

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Reports surfaced this week that Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is considering pulling its support from LIV, placing the tour in question.

LIV Golf officials have not said that a tournament scheduled in New Orleans in June has been cancelled. But Landry in the interview suggested it could soon be, though he was quick to say the state would recoup financial incentives if the event didn’t pan out.

Landry said, “It is disappointing that … their issue came to an end. We didn’t lose $7 million. And I think that that’s extremely important.”

He noted that the roughly $2 million the state spent on City Park upgrades for the golf tournament was well worth it, and the state would keep $5 million it had planned to pay LIV.

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